Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: The Panthers moved David Bolland’s contract in the offseason as they wanted the cap flexibility. They have the room to add someone if they choose.

Friedman wonders if somewhere quieter would be better for Max Pacioretty.

“This is me talking here, but if (and I stress if) the Canadiens ever wanted to do this, the difficulty is you are trading a 30-goal scorer with a $4.5M average salary. That is worth a ton in today’s NHL. What is equal value? Has to be a lot. I don’t know many teams that could pull it off.”

The top pending UFA defensemen are Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk. Nick Kypreos reported that Alzner is looking for between $5.5 and $6 million a season. Teams in the Western Canada could be interested in Alzner.

Some teams were allowed during the offseason to speak with Shattenkirk. The Coyotes and Oilers were two of the teams. Don’t think that Shattenkirk was interested in playing in Edmonton. The Coyotes made some headway. Some teams think Shattenkirk wants to play for the Rangers, but they’d have salary cap issues.

A source said that the Blackhawks showed some interest in Sam Gagner in the offseason.